Gary Shearston

During the late 1950s and early 1960s Gary Shearston established himself as one of Australia's pioneer folk singers.

He was born in 1939 in Inverell, New South Wales. At the outbreak of World War II his father went off on active service while Gary and his mother moved to his grandparents' farm at Tenterfield where he grew up until he was 11, when drought caused his family to move to Sydney. He left school at sixteen, the same year he obtained his first guitar. After a couple of short term jobs trained as a staff correspondent with United Press, while playing his guitar and learning songs. Originally his ambition in music was to become a drummer like his hero Gene Krupa, but he hadn't been able to afford a drum kit.

Shearston was given his start in show business by joining the Tintookies, the famous Australian travelling puppet show for a year. On his return to Sydney he continued with several jobs working puppets on kids' TV shows. He also joined the Hayes Gordon Ensemble Theatre, first as an actor, then behind the scenes as a stage manager. In the meantime Gary had learned a repertoire of English, American and Australian folk songs and from the age of nineteen had become a professional singer. He worked the hotels and clubs before the 60s 'folk boom' brought the coffee houses and folk club circuit. He sang at Sydney's first folk club, The Folksinger, and with American gospel and blues singer Brother John Sellers Gary opened Sydney's Troubadour.

In late 1962 Gary Shearston signed with the Leedon label, most famous for its rock and pop releases. While the single and EP he released but were not big sellers they raised Shearston's profile. In late 1963, after expensive negotiations with Leedon's distributor Festival he signed to CBS which was developing a strong Australian roster in the jazz and folk fields. In March '65 Sydney radio started playing a track from his album, 'Australian Broadside'. As a single, 'Sydney Town' became a Top Ten single in that city, and sold well throughout the rest of Australia. Over the next two years Shearston would become Australia's biggest record seller of folk music. What distinguished his records and performances was the Australian 'voice' Shearston chose to sing in. He starred in his own national TV show, 'Just Folk', and when Peter Paul and Mary (who had brought Bob Dylan to public attention) toured Australia they decided to record their own version of his song 'Sometime Lovin'. They also invited Gary to go to America.

In 1967 Shearston returned to Festival with an album. 'Abreaction', which was considered too avant garde. He decided now was the time to head off to the USA. US immigration officials however were not keen to welcome this Aussie folk singer who had acquired an ASIO file because of his opposition to the Vietnam war and his involvement with the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. While waiting for the US Immigration to make up their minds Shearston spent a year in London. He finally made it to the US in 1968 and spent the next four years on the East Coast. The visa problems meant that he was unable to perform and a full album he recorded for Warner Brothers remained unreleased. In 1972 he returned to England and rerecorded come of those songs on the album, 'Dingo'. The song that attracted most attention however was his deadpan interpretation of Cole Porter's 'I Get A Kick Out Of You', a major hit in England and Australia.

Gary Shearston returned to Australia in 1989, and shortly afterwards decided to undertake studies to enter the Anglican priesthood. Gary was ordained in July 1992 and now tends to his congregation in the NSW north coast region. He still performs occasional concerts and still writes songs.

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